Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Cuban says he spied for both sides Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:51:51 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Cuban says he spied for both sides \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT MIAMI MIAMI (AP) - The military chief of the biggest anti-Castro exile group in Miami says he was actually a double agent who helped organize attacks against Cuba at the behest of the Cuban government to embarrass the United States. In a series of interviews this week with a Spanish-language television station in Miami, Francisco Avila also said he worked for the FBI providing information about the Cuban spy network in the United States. Mr. Avila is chief of operations of Alpha 66, an anti-Castro exile group in Miami that advocates the overthrow of that country's communist regime. He was quoted in yesterday's New York Times as saying he went public rather than wait for the news to come out if Fidel Castro's government falls. Last month, the Spanish-language station WSCV taped Mr. Avila at a New York restaurant with Cuba's third secretary at the United Nations, Carlos Manuel Collazo Usallan. The station said Mr. Collazo didn't know Mr. Avila was a spy. The State Department on Tuesday expelled Mr. Collazo from the United States on suspicion of spying. In an interview broadcast by the station on Monday, Mr. Avila said he was recruited by Cuba after being captured in 1967 during a failed Alpha 66 raid. In 1979, he was returned to Miami, where he was supposed to report on exile groups for the Cubans. But shortly after his return, Mr. Avila said, he contacted U.S. officials and began a 13-year career as a double agent for the FBI. "I have been fighting the Castro regime for 30-some years," he said. Paul Miller, the FBI spokesman in Miami, would not comment. In a Tuesday night broadcast, Mr. Avila said the Cuban government fostered raids by exiles and even paid for them if necessary to build up an image of a small country under attack by Yankee imperialism. Mr. Avila said coded messages were transmitted over Havana radio stations to him and other agents. One message suggested sabotaging some of the boats in the Freedom Flotilla, an event in which exiles sail their boats just outside Cuban waters as a gesture of defiance. Mr. Avila said Cuban agents in the United States occasionally supplied arms and even had him buy a boat to help exiles in their attacks on the island country. "They gave me $12,000 for me to purchase that boat," he said. "I could show it to you. It is outside my house." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM